The cities looking to eliminate fossil fuels in the buildings achieved a decisive victory in the court. Last week, a federal judge Reject It was brought by plumbing and building groups against the New York City ban on natural gas in new buildings. The decision is the first to be explicitly different with a previous ruling that struck Berkeley, the first ban on gas in California. This matter, issued by the Court of Appeal in the ninth American district in 2023 and pushed again last year, pushed cities across the country to withdraw or delay the laws designed after Berkeley Decree.
While the New York City Law works differently from Berkeley, legal experts say this month’s decision provides a strong legal bottom for all types of local policies to gradually get rid of gas in buildings – and can encourage cities to take ambitious measures again.
“It is a clear victory in this regard, because the ninth department’s decision had a chilling effect on local governments,” said Amy Turner, director of the Climate Law initiative in Colombia’s cities at the Sabine Center for Climate Change. “Now there is something else to refer to, and a good reason for hope for local governments that might have photographed its buildings plans to bring them to the interface again.”
In 2021, New York City adopted Local Law 154Which determines the limit of air emissions for the internal combustion of fuel inside the new buildings. Under the law, it is prohibited to burn “any material of which emits 25 kilograms or more carbon dioxide per million British thermal units of energy.” This standard effectively prohibits gas burning stoves, ovens, water heaters, and any other fossil fuel devices. Instead, real estate developers must install electrical appliances, such as induction stoves and heat pumps. The policy entered into force In 2024 For buildings under seven stories, it will apply to the longest buildings that start in 2027.
Berkeley Law, on the other hand, banned the installation of gas pipelines in a new building. The first policy of its kind was issued in 2019 and inspired nearly a hundred local governments across the country to provide similar laws. But the decree quickly faced a lawsuit by the California Restaurants Association, which argued that gas stoves were necessary for the food services industry. In April 2023, the ninth department court ruled in favor of the restaurant industry, considering that federal energy efficiency standards exclude Berkeley’s policy. In January 2024, a petition was rejected from Berkeley to restore the case in the ninth district.
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Denial last year included listening to a detailed Opposition By eight out of 29 judges on the ninth district, who argued that the court ruling had been determined “error” and “desire[d] Any future court “thinking about the same argument” not to repeat the committee’s opinion errors. “Turner pointed out that writing the opposition at all is unusual to take procedural measures such as denial of construction.
After one year, this is exactly what happened. In the lawsuit of New York City, the construction industry and union groups used the members of the gas infrastructure the same logic that prevailed in the Berkeley case, on the pretext that the city’s electro -electricity law precedes the energy efficiency standards under the law of maintaining a federal energy policy of 1975, or EPCA. This law defines national efficiency criteria for major home appliances such as ovens, stoves and clothes dryers. Under the law, states and cities cannot define their energy conservation criteria that will contradict federal standards. Commercial groups have argued that EPCA must also anticipate any local laws, such as New York, would prevent the use of energy -powered devices in fossil fuels that meet national standards.
The groups wrote in its complaint: “According to the design, the city has put this level so low that it prohibits all gas and oil devices,” the groups wrote in its complaint. “The ban on the city prohibits all fuel gas devices, violates federal law” and “represents a major threat to companies in New York City that sells, installs, serve plumbing and gas infrastructure.”
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Quoting the opposition of the ninth district, the US boycott court of the southern region of New York rejected these claims. Boycotting judge, Rooney Abrams, wrote in court opinion. She pointed out that the regulation of fuel use within certain buildings is the usual practice in the states and cities, and she also indicated that New York City has banned the internal use of kirosin spaces for decades. “Was the prosecutors investigators around the EPCA range, these vital safety regulations will also be replaced – a ridiculous result that the court should avoid,” Abrams wrote.
Drrour Ladine, lawyer, chief lawyer at Earthjustice, a non -profit institution that presented a summary of evenings on behalf of local environmental groups in the lawsuit, said. He said: “This ruling shows that there is absolutely no reason to explain Berkeley’s decision on a large scale.” The argument offered by commercial groups “is the argument that would prevent a full range of health and safety regulations, and change the strength of cities and countries in a way that we have not seen in this country.”
By agreeing with the interpretation of the opposition in the ninth circle of EPCA, the decision last week strengthens all types of electrical policies, including those in New York City and those that were designed after Berkeley, Turner pointed out. She said: “This decision we just reached from the southern region is a wider scale.” “Even if the course of air emissions is not suitable for the city for any reason, other differences of the building’s electrification requirements or incentives may pass a crowd.”
Commercial groups behind the lawsuit said they would do Appeal of the decision. Meanwhile, legal challenges were launched using the same arguments that were presented against a gas ban in Berkeley Building code at the state level in New York And electrical policies in places such as Denverand Montgomery County, MarylandAnd Washington, DC
Ladine said that the judges in these cases will inevitably indicate Berkeley’s decision and the ruling last week by the southern region of New York, and hope to give more weight to the latter. “Berkeley is not a good decision, and this judge saw through it, and I think that many other judges will also be through it.”